UnlikelyGrad

Well, the posters seem to have different ideas of what is not civil (e.g. poster A reports poster B for not being civil, while poster B reports poster A)... Look, if we blocked everyone who's supposedly not civil, this thread would not continue any more. Seems like closing the thread would be easier. I think the mods are already leaning that way. So play nice.

This ought to win some sort of prize. I've been on GradCafe for ~3 years now and have never seen anything remotely this geeky/awesome/hilarious!

I got a weekend acceptance and I knew several people my year who got evening acceptances. Let's face it, you'll never be able to temper the insanity unless you get into your dream school.

My first thought was: Are they first years? Because I didn't know squat about what was going on when I was a first year. And now the first-year in our lab only vaguely knows what's going on, as far as I can tell.

LOL!!! Two thumbs up! (I particularly like the thing about yachting school!)

But it's better than no research experience at all. Make sure at least one of your research advisors writes a LoR for you. Well, there are feelings and then there are feelings, if you know what I mean. When I was a teenager, I felt like I should major in astrophysics. I loved space, so it was the obvious choice! I just had to do it! ...except that I wasn't very good at physics, which meant that I couldn't really cut it as an astronomy major. In other words: I felt like I should do something, but it was an unsubstantiated feeling--I'd never really tried what I needed to do before. But when I got into doing what I am doing now? OMG, I was so thrilled. And I still am. There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I want to do. Could I do something else? Sure. I made a fairly competent computational chemist, as my former PI would be happy to tell you. But it just didn't feel right. In a nutshell: "I've tried it, and it feels right" = appropriate use of feelings; "I feel like trying something new"=reasonable thing to feel, but don't you dare mention it to admissions officers. Are you currently doing research in medicinal chemistry? If so, good...talk about how it feels right. If not, say..."I always felt happy when doing organic synthesis; the only thing that bothered me was that I didn't feel my work was helping people" (or something of that sort).

Why are you hindered? You sound like you have a good background to me. Don't worry about your school. Heck, my alma mater could very easily be referred to as a "degree mill" (it was a large state university), and I got accepted places. Make sure you have a good GRE score. Some people say it's not necessary, but some schools *will* discard you on that basis alone if your score is too low. Think very specifically about what sorts of research you want to do. Read the literature in that field. Find profs whose work you enjoy. See where they work. Apply to those schools.

Advisor. Always.

I would go for grad school in your shoes. First of all, there's no reason why you have to get a job as a professor. Companies hire people with Ph.Ds for other jobs--my brother has a PhD in a social science and is making a lot of money in his job. Secondly, I hate to say this, but there are a lot of people out there with social science degrees--bachelor's and master's--all looking for jobs. A PhD from an excellent university would make you look a lot better than other applicants. Finally, not all programs will guarantee you funding if you defer. You can check to see if that's the case at your school, but it's definitely something you should keep in mind.

I didn't get my first acceptance until 2/1 (this was 2 years ago), and my last (UIUC) came in around March 15. Hang in there.

I got some textbooks (GenChem, PChem, Inorganic, Organic, Analytical) that had in-depth solutions manuals. Then I worked through every single one of them on my own. I started with odd problems, and if I could get through with only a couple of minor mistakes I moved on. If I totally screwed up I went back and did the evens. If you have funding, this is moot. The university will cover your tuition. Many schools will cover out-of-state tuition for one year, which gives you a chance to establish residency. After that they only cover in-state tuition. No. Definitely not. Don't email. You are there in person, so meet with them in person. The best way is to take the person's class and go into office hours several times for help. Talk with them while you're there. Ask them about their research. Take notes, then go home and see if you understand what they told you. Go back and ask for clarification if necessary. Say you really want to understand what they are doing. Ask to see papers they've published. If you are a diligent student AND you show interest in what they are doing, they will probably ask you (ideal)...but if not, after four or five trips to the prof's office, it should be OK to ask them yourself. Hmmm...don't know any of the ChemE profs. Note that if you don't know his name, it will be hard to put the research on your CV! Maybe you could describe him to me? Tell me what sort of research you were doing. Did he retire or leave for other reasons? The two I know who left (neither for retirement) were Pat Fleming and Tom Young, both of whom were computational chemists. eta: I don't know about Pat, but Tom definitely took ChemE students as researchers.

I got my last acceptance in mid-March (maybe as late as March 20?) and my last rejection in July. When I got admitted to MyU, I was told to "please reply by March 31 if you are not coming" because they wanted to be able to make offers to people on the waitlist before April 15. So yes, April admits are definitely possible.

Some state universities fund MS programs. Not the Cal State Universities, though. There are funded MS students at my school (though the incoming PhD students were always offered funding before the incoming MS students). I believe Portland State University (in Oregon) had a funded MS program. We'd need more info on your research interests. What exactly would you be doing at these things? Absolutely--you should never have to pay for a Ph.D. in science. The Princeton Review (I think) book of grad schools had this data for some (but not all) schools. I found it at my local library. Nope. Only mods can edit post titles. Yikes, that would be a tough program. In our department of ~50 students we lose approximately 1 per semester. That's about 4% attrition per year. Of course there are some who are asked to do a MS instead of a Ph.D...not sure how many of these we get per year... Depends on the school. Your funding offer should clarify this, if not you ask the department. Mine is good for 5 years. Of course, once you get past a certain percentage of the degree program, you might be able to go on reduced tuition (depending on the school)--so if all you're doing is writing your dissertation, you might not have to pay so much. No, don't stay that long! Maybe an extra year (and even then I would be hesitant), but two years is too long. For one thing, there's no guarantee that your GPA will actually improve. No. A better idea would be to go over the material again on your own so you can ace the Chem GRE.

See, even this is too vague. There are a lot of things you can do with transition metals. I like transition metals too, and I'm interested in their environmental implications. But I could also have gone down a materials track, creating new materials using transition metals. Or I could have gone into organometallics--I seriously considered that. Most organometallics use transition metals. Was he in the chemistry department? When did you work for him? The closest person to "Les" in the chem department I can think of is Brooke Lustig. Tall, burly guy, long curly hair, mustache?

I'm dying of curiosity...who? I know a couple of people who have left SJSU in the last few years. YES. Absolutely, yes. In other words, you don't have a strongly defined idea of what you want to do. So here's my advice: you can take it or leave it. Go for the MS. Then work in industry for a few years and possibly try adjuncting at a community college at the same time. After this you should have a better idea of where you want to go with your life. SJSU wouldn't be a particularly good place for someone interested in inorganic chemistry--the focus there is strongly biochem, if I remember correctly, and even people in other areas of chemistry seem to have some link to biochem. Try other CSU schools for master's programs; you should be able to find one with a better focus, and tuition will be reasonable since you are a California resident.

It is completely unreasonable to expect a first-year grad student to have publishable material at the end of their first semester. Or their second, for that matter. I think you should have a talk with your department head and let him know what's up. Anyone who does research knows that first-year grads are unlikely to produce anything publishable. (The fastest person in my year, my department got his first paper submitted in Nov of his second year. At the rate I'm going, I'm guessing my first paper will be submitted around the beginning of my third--which seems to be common timing in the environmental realm.)

Clarification: Do you mean you will submit your applications in Fall 2011 for Fall 2012? Since your GPA is not so hot, you'll want to focus on getting research experience and making sure you have rock solid letters of recommendation. It's amazing what a good letter of recommendation from a research advisor can do for your app. And, as Eigen said, you really need to decide what sort of chemistry you want to do. You're going to have to write a statement of purpose outlining your research goals. And while your specific research interests might drift over time, you'd want to at least be in a program which has a reasonable number of profs in the major sub-field. So: what sub-field, at the very least, are you interested in? Physical (Experimental? Computational?), Organic, Inorganic, Analytical, Materials, Environmental? If you can't pull together more research experience and strong LoRs, a master's might be a good step--do something locally and then apply for Ph.D. programs. (Are you near SJSU? I know that place...)

I posted about this a while back...My feeling is that most profs don't list grad students who don't end up with a "prestigious job"... FWIW, my former PI was a Stanford grad, post-doc'ed at Columbia, and then went to teach at a NoName State University, where he was very happy. So there. And my current advisor's former student just landed a TT job--none of his schools were Ivy-class. eta: Here's the post

That's OK. Your friendly neighborhood moderator can't stand typos either. *waves magic wand* And congrats, btw!

In the last month I've started doing an exercise routine in the mornings--a combination of weights (2-5 lbs) and yoga. So I have strength and flexibility covered...now I just need to incorporate aerobic exercise...other than running up and down the stairs between office and lab, of course.

I think that's what it means. But I love all of your other suggestions!

Look: GRE and grades aren't everything. They especially aren't everything if you are applying to a top-tier school like MIT. Improving your GRE scores and grades won't help you get into a top tier school. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. In your shoes, I would just accept the offer to UMass, then make sure I got an advisor who focused on personal development, AND preferably had ties to people at top tier schools who could nab you a prestigious postdoc. (Full disclosure: I turned down a top-tier program for a lesser known one, but now work for an advisor who has strong ties to Harvard and MIT among other places...and she is definitely well known in her field.)

When I was a prospective grad, I couldn't make the visit weekend here at MyU, but to be honest, I don't think I missed much. In fact, I think I got more personal attention by showing up by myself on an alternate date (the admins here were happy to arrange this).

In my fourth semester here... I love my classes! If I had gone to a traditional chem program I would have been done with classes last year, but I've had to learn so many new things in my interdisciplinary program. I am loving every minute of it! I love my research! Yeah, there are times I am flustered by the amount of dishes I have to wash, and the equipment is old and needs constant repair, but I love the challenges, the unravelling of thorny problems. I love my advisor! I love my peers! I love reading articles about cool science! I'm not saying it's not a lot of work--it is--but I LOVE GRAD SCHOOL! (And no, I don't usually use this many exclamation points.)

Note from a moderator: If you don't hold off the name-calling, you're going to be banned. Learn to discourse civilly or don't discourse at all.